Kil'Jaeden Demon Lord

[shockowaffel]

This piece is finished.

[shockowaffel]

It's time for something new.
Since I already have some good Blizzard Fanarts, I'm going for a last one, to put together for a portfolio for the Warcraft TCG.
You're welcome to help me here.
I'm not going for a fictional TCG work here, so the format is rather open.

I'm going for the demon lord Kil' Jaeden.
Why ? Because there are very few pictures of him on the web and there is no TCG card of him. Kil'Jaeden is quite big, btw.

Here are some thumbnails. Please tell me what you think.





Two more thumbs.
I think I prefer 9 over 8 since he's a villain and the lighting from below makes him more sinister.

I also kinda like number 4 since it's more dynamic and has better depth.
with a clearer foreground it's basically number 6.

[TinyBird]

Hmm. I do really like the lighting in 9, but I have to say that all the thumbs seem kinda, hmm, I'm not sure what would be good word for it, but... empty? I mean like very few of them seem to have any real narrative or a thing that's going on, which would show clearly who/what he is and what he's like and show the points you might want to emphasize.
Like most of these are just about an average sized monster that stands looking kinda authoritative or irritated (for no seemingly particular reason) but is not really doing anything.
Like I'd decide if you want this image to just illustrate his visual appearance or tell a story. I'm kinda liking #3 too, but for that personally I'd add like... little minions or whatnot he might have on his feets to show the scale (and emphasize the perspective a bit) and maybe have him command them or something. Or if the point is that he's all alone in what ever dimension he is, showcase the emptiness around him, etc.

If the format isn't a issue, I'd at least explore more thumbs that go further than just showing his bust.

[shockowaffel]

The lack of narrative or gesture is a good point.
You're right there.

I came up with tsome thoughts on how to illustrate what in this piece:

Size:
- maybe atmospheric effect
- a relation point, like minions or persons
- perspective (looking up for example)

Evil character:
- lighting from below for a creepy mood
- The character itself looks evil enough already ^^

What else:
- Very dominant composition / view filling for a feel of dominance and power. Maybe similar to old king's portraits.

I try some more thumbs.

[shockowaffel]

And some more thumbs.

[shockowaffel]

More thumbs that I think are interesting.

[shockowaffel]

Wow, this took a while.
Outlines for now.

[OmenSpirits]

You JUST killed me.

The prior two posts above this one made me rather excited that you were headed in the right direction...

....then your last post just killed that hope.

The thumbs where this creature was actually doing something are cool.

The folded arms, directly looking at us, is not.

But hey, carry on.

[LordLouis]

Just posting here to emphasize just how much I agree with OmenSpirits.
The "evil kil'jaeden staring " pose has been done to death already.

Why don't you try to incorporate more of the wow lore? Depict the moment when the bloodelves realize their mistake? Thumbnails 13 and 15 would be suitable for that.

[Husbarn]

You definitely have some talents, maybe shadows doesn't look too realistic, but pictures looking truly great, keep up the good work.

[shockowaffel]

@OmenSpirits:
Really ? ...Damn!
Well, now that Ive spent so much time on the outlines I'm gonna finish it anyways (sooner or later) but I guess I'll give another one a try, too.

@LordLouis:
Thanks,... for the Wow lore:
I think I'd go for "Kil'Jaeden meets Ner'zhul". The Sunwell Scenario is cool, too, but I'd like to do something more unique.

@Husbarn:
Thank you too. I'll definetely keep going.

[Kode]

The first thumb in post 5 does it for me! He looks immense leaning over the
little guy like that, maybe the guy he is threatening could be Ner'zhul?

[shockowaffel]

This is really giving me a hard time.

More thumbs.

[LordLouis]

"Kil'Jaeden meets Ner'zhul".

niiiiice
I LOVE your new thumbnails, no. 8 looks so polished! My favourite. 10 and 11 look great to me as well, possibly 13 as well but I'm not sure whats going on there.

Why don't you buy Sammy Hall's 'Evoke the Dragon' downloadable content here? It is a fantastic video in which he shows his process of refining thumbnails and doing composition and colour studies before moving on to the final image. Maybe that's what you struggle with? I can't give any advice I'm afraid, but you might find that video useful. (Sorry if I sound like I'm trying to do some cheap advertising, just a thought^^)

Looking forward to your next steps.

//Edit: Sorry for some reason I can't connect to the ConceptArt store, here is the promotional video:

[shockowaffel]

Hey thx for the hint, and your opinion.

My problems lays in many things for this picture.
The first is the size of the character.
He's 10x bigger than any other Warcraft character which makes it kinda hard to let him interact with one of normal size.
Especially when Kil'Jaeden is supposed to be the focus.
I mean you still need to recognize the little guys.

The gesture or character is also tricky.
Kil'Jaeden never really did something. He has no weapons or other stuff that he could wield. He's more like the manipulative mastermind, letting everybody else do the stuff.

[LordLouis]

I am sure other people can give you better advice on how to portray the size of a character. What I would do is look at the RIFT Colossus contest winners on deviantart and see how they managed to portray the scale.

As for his attacks- well, looking at KilJaeden Boss fights it's obvious that he is a caster. His attacks include those of a shadow priest, a warlock and a mage. If you want to portray him in action, I would suggest you pick a spellcasting tune. Like mind beams on Ner'zhul; and the like.

[shockowaffel]

Thx again, I guess some random fire or shadow speels would do. (Just checked on the Boss abilities)
I also did check out the rift entries. Some inspiring stuff in there.

Again some thumbs. I think I should make a decision soon.
I should have enough thumbs to get something up that's ok for me.

[shockowaffel]

Ok, I think I'll go with one of these or variations of it.
Opinions ?

[Candra H]

I liked the last two thumbs above from a previous post so I'm glad you've included them in your possibles for a final.

V to me is like a character study whereas VI is more narrative based, so I guess it comes down to which of those types of image you want to create - character study or illustration.

Good luck with your decision and the rest of the project.

[shockowaffel]

Hi, long time not postet because of the server updates and me beeing lazy. ^^°
Here's the version I'm currently running with or better, the wip.
Let me hear what you think.
I dont care much about narrative this time or scale.
I checked on some WoW TCG cards and most of them is just impressive posing, especially when it comes to well known characters.
So I decided to concentrate on the dark and evil flair of the character.

*edit*
ok pics dont seem to work right now, so how about linking somewhere else ?

[shockowaffel]

Some progress.
Does the image attachement work this time ?
*edit* doesnt look like it.

Here's a link:

[LordLouis]

I doubt that your amazonas bucket will release data to foreign users. Just use an image host for the time being.

[OmenSpirits]

1, 8, & 16 have a good feel to them.

[nouge]

I see that you're not focusing on lore or scale, but the last thumb in #18 looks really cool.

[shockowaffel]

Poop, yesterday, the link worked, why is it gone now ? The one in post #20 has the same link and it's still there.

Let's try this again... *edit* it works, please stay up.
Link:

[Eldinga]

Looks pretty darn good in my book. The only issue is that the light on his shoulders makes it seem like the wings are further behind and not actually attached to his body. I realize that the character is supposedly easily recognized, but it looks like he is standing in front if two wing-shaped banners. Maybe just add some more membrane and bone texture to add some darker shadows to make it look more unified?

[LordLouis]

To be perfectly honest when you decided for that thumbnail I thought it's not going to work out, but I am proven wrong. I really love it.

[shockowaffel]

@Eldinga:
I plaed around wih the values of the wings and overall I think it's better now. Thx for the hint.

@Lord Louis:
Thanks, I'm always happy when people appreciate my work.

New one !
If there's no crit coming I'll go to colouring it next.

[shockowaffel]

And the next one. I worked on the focus some more, some light in the face and stuff.

[ZombieMariachis]

Looking pretty slick! I'm liking all your thumbnails as well.